The Feilding Star. THURSDAY, JUNE 17, 1886. The Recent Volcanic Eruption

Feilding Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2, 17 June 1886, Page 2

The Feilding Star. THURSDAY, JUNE 17, 1886. The Recent Volcanic Eruption

■■. : . — ."»' ■■ ■- . ;.,i -.-TV:--. It may be fairly presumed that the numerous telegrams .now . received' from Kotorua and are sufficient to convey to our mu&B a general idea of the '.disastrous effects which have resulted from the tremen- . dous outburst of ft yolcAniq ' force at, Tarawera iuuf Ebtoinahana. The immediate results are - that fully,' 9&* i« hundred Natives arid several JEuroper ans^haye lost their lives under circumstances of ' more or less pain arid hori-or, according ask-doath cape less or |more? suddenlyi|ap6n^ thetn — that of thriving settlers 'at Te Puke, Whakatane, and Opotiki have beck ruined, or at least have been subjected to very . heavy loss by' t deposits of volcanic dust. and ashes, which have 'c6vered rr th'eir-'fie'ldß and' left; all their stock in a state of abso^ lutd starvation — that the township of Kotorua has been Seriously damaged and the beautiful little village of W4iroa has-been utterly'" destroyed and left a desolate scene of grey mud and ashes — and last though certainlynotjleast — that the marvellous terraces of are a thing bTthg past. No one who has not seen the terraces as- they existed a" week ago' jcanlat all realize the loss which ttie Country has sustained^n-losing them * -Nature had been silentlvA.and unceasi* ingjy at work upon r themV building up I tier above tier of lovely basins, beaktiful in f their ornamenting; jth^m with exquisitely delicate tracery by a' process iuiperVeptible to human eye, and which must" have taken centuries itojbring ftheinjotii^^^ vattt ined. Rotomahana and Eotorua iwill still remain, the-vcflnderlaud-of the lanti podes-^-iudped itjmay "l>e; pat the inev developments nature's hidden fortes may be more marvellous than thefojd; but the b^eajti^oay^^)rie7 and only the terrors of the region remain. From Kotorua througK Wairof^M l^tVsJbif^araweya lakeUo EotomanaudT was^one of the lovely and varied excursions jrwhijch it is possible to imttgirieV with rit^ioft beauties of wood, lake, arid; l^moiHJam^ll^M^harni^g.eontrdsfe Jto & B^p&p Arpa^m^u^ghi^ the neighborhood of Eetd£u4 affords^ W« ! may now indeed feelithankf ul that vsuc i lovely and fertile spots as Wairoft* are I rare in that regions: Had they bee a more frequen^leji^r^f la^flil ten y European settlement would have pus bed its way there, and the Jobs of UferlandT^p^^ #ogiai|have befml far greater, thai nta^jwial-now famenVBu aUalongtheJwe^oi active .T.oloania Jslf nd iirtae r Daffy^Plrartyf^nWtulr herielf seems to have warned off^ trei passers most effectually, by pre|sen ;ing only sterile plains *i&&fti§h moi intains and ravines from' one end of' his line to the other;^ W^- ham sim marised the immeMfite^ r^B^lt|T,ofj Ifchii catastrophe, bilt what the ultimate ¥essrtt§ m thf colony; ig n d^sJw^aUjr^o thi| tfbi&ibti^c-ttj-'ilfyitittyi^ hoi^ even tD^Burmise. For many yißars to come the remembrance^oi it will operate prejudicially on the colonization of the North' Island, The news of i!;he eruption will go foijth in public print, and in private letters, probably;, witjfi some exaggeration of its exjteflt ana terrors, and yap volcanic mountains ; pi. jßuapehu and; Egmont, and the volcanic craters: bo numerous about Auckland, will probably be looked^ upoijn by intending colonists as so many permanent and,^ obtrusive beacons warning them not to settle in their neighborhood. p^How far, agau£ Eotjorua will ceas© to be looked upon as a safe sanatorium it is impossible at present to say. If there seems to be SimmineiiifTfiski off being boiled, invalids wM^gr^i «r to sufferrheumatic pai^s rather than try the healing virtueaj of the thermal springs. Then there is a question which, will certainly ■'a'rwjp— 3fj>w ■'■fkr. i is : :'a\'pW<Jeat :^love^ir "merit justfn'ed^iitf continuing the heavy expenditure 'at' Eotorua, and encouraging ;thVinnux;6ff foreign visitors to a iplac'e* wtiibh irosjy: at : any moment prove a" trap to destrby' thein ? Time is the ..only , healer in such' a case as this. ; Fai4iiiprity ! , with the ' dangers which are ! and' ever -have -been present at Rotprua, and which are really its only attraction, will breed contempt for the power which underlies them. In a .few years the i outburst of Tarawera will;be looked upon as an interesting indent pf the distant past not likely to r4cur in our generation ; and meanwhile, being Englishmen, we shall at pnce; set to work to repair damages, and as soon as the more adventurous among us have explored the way, we shali all — delicate ladies as well as abler bodied irien^-ebe swaggering about the new volcanoes as merrily and with as little sense of immediate danger as we have, in common with thoubands of others, climbed the terraces of Eotomahana and disported ourselves par- j boiled in its steaming basins. t